An election fever gripped the political parties over the weekend. The situation in both the party central committees and their branches is boiling. The election committees are being manned, election lists are being compiled, candidates are scrambling for higher positions on the lists, etc. The Parliament passed the election rules, without consensus for the first time - only with the votes of the government. Sixty-eight MPs of governing VMRO-DPMNE and BDI voted for the modifications to the election law. LDP MP Roza Topuzova-Karevska and PDSH MP Imer Aliu participated in the debate but did not take part in the vote.
Under the modified election law, the diaspora will be able to vote too and the new Parliament is going to have 123 MPs including three diaspora MPs representing Europe, the USA and Australia.
The Parliament should also correct the number of voters in the sixth election unit, elect the new president of the State Election Commission, Boris Kondarko from SDSM, and adopt the constitutional amendments for extradition of Macedonian citizens with double citizenship whereupon it can dissolve. The largest opposition party is going to participate in the elections but is not going to discontinue its parliamentary boycott. Imer Selmani’s Demokracia e Re, on the other hand, is going to return to Parliament only to vote for its dissolution. Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said last week that his party would suggest that the elections be held on 5 June. The elections should officially be called by Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski.
The central committee of the Social Democrats elected secretary general Andrej Petrov as chief of the election committee for the early general election. The executive committee is authorized to set the date and place for holding the SDSM congress.
The central committee of LDP officially started Monday the preparations for the early general elections. The party formed an election committee and elected secretary general Dufe Kukoski as its president. LDP said that the procedure of electing candidates for MPs began and will unfold over the next 30 days. MP Andrej Zernovski, university professor Vesna Velik-Stefanovska and Marjan Kostadinov were elected vice presidents of the party. The new members of LDP’s executive committee were elected at the meeting of the central committee too.
The Liberal Party elected Ivon Velickovski as new president of the party. At the 10th congress, which took place in Skopje, Velickovski was supported by 145 delegates. In his first address before the delegates, Velickovski said the party would focus in the coming period on the development of parliamentary democracy in Macedonia and on resolving the name issue with a solution that would not entail constitutional modifications.
LP honorary president Stojan Andov said the Liberal Party was one of the factors of statehood in Macedonia.
Demokracia e Re leader Imer Selmani said that the central council of the party decided that they should participate in the elections.
“As we have said a month and a half ago, we are prepared to run in the elections without setting conditions. I believe in the human and professional capacity of Demokracia e Re, our vision and our political offer with which we are prepared to embark on the election race,” he said.
A central election committee to be chaired by Arijanit Hoxha was elected at the meeting as well.
Pavle Trajanov’s Democratic Union has undertaken intense organization activities “in order to demonstrate independence and negotiating power in the coming talks with VMRO-DPMNE”. Trajanov said he hoped that following the talks with VMRO-DPMNE in the next few days, they would run together in the elections. The election slogan of the party in the coming parliamentary elections will be “New jobs for a better future”.
